Felt boot



(No Model.)

' P. M. FARGO.

FELT BOOT. No. 371,746. Patented 00. 18, 18877..

N. PETERS. Pho'wljthugmphcr. Washinglnw. 11c,

UNITED STATES PATENT @EEicE.

FRANK M. FARGO,-OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FELT BOOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 371,746, dated October 18, 1887.

Application filed June 13, 1887.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK M. FARGO, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new Improvement in Felt Boots; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure l, a side view of a felt boot (30111 plete; Fig. 2, a side view of the boot with the overshoe applied; Fig. 3, the bat with the overlay applied as in the process of manufacture; Fig. 4, a vertical section through the boot, representing the re-enforce as upon the inside of the leg.

This invention relates to an improvement in that class of boots which are made from felt, the foot and leg being made continuous, and which are adapted to be worn with an overshoe, as seen in Fig. 2. The tendency of the leg of the boot is to wrinkle at the ankle. The upper edge of the overshoe closed tightly upon the ankle forms a firm support for the boot, but leaves the leg portion free to work over the edge of the shoe, and the edge of the shoe being so firm the result is that the felt gives way on the bearing line of the upper edge of the shoe and soon cracks at that point. To obviate this diflieulty the boot has been reenforced by the application of duck, leather, or some material harder or firmer than the felt; but as such strengthening material must be applied to the boot after it is formed, and cannot have perfect connection with the bootleg throughout the entire surface of the strengthening material, that material wrinkles, independent of the boot, or many times shrinks independent oftheboot,and produces wrinkles 'inthe leg of the boot, detrimental not only to the boot itself, but inconvenient to the wearer.

The object ofmy invention is to re-enforce the boot with a material integral with the boot and introduced in the process offelting; and it consists in a thickening or re-enforce applied from below the ankle of the boot upward by the application of an extra bat, in width and thickness corresponding to the width and thickness required for the re-enforce, and whereby the re- Serial No. 241,178. (No model.)

enforced part of the boot is so strengthened as to prevent its breaking over the upper edge of the shoe.

In the manufacture of the boot the bat is prepared in the usual manner and of the usual shape--say as seen in Fig. 3-then upon this hat I apply an overlay-bat, (represented at A, in Fig.3,) the said overlying bat being of the proper thickness and extent required, but should be so as to gradually die out at its upper and lower edge. It is applied at what may be called the ankle portion of the bootthat is, so that when the boot is complete the re-enforce will extend from a point below the ankle to a point a considerable distance above, and as seen in Fig. 4. Then the bat is treated in the usual manner to bring it into the proper form and shape for the boot. The overlayI preferably make from a longer fiber than that usually or necessarily employed in the boot proper, for the purpose of giving a greater strength to the re enforce. The re enforce completely surrounds the leg from a point below where the upper edge of the shoe will takeits bearing to a point above, and gives sufficient strength to the leg of the boot at this point where the settling or wrinkling most occurs and strengthens it against the tendency to break over the upper edge of the shoe.

By making the re-ent'oree ofsubstantially the same material as that of the boot proper and integral therewith there is no differential action between the 're-enforce and the boot itself, either in wear or because of wetting, or from any other cause, and being of the same nature and material as that of the boot itself it offers no inconvenience to the wearer, nor does it change the appearance of the boot, as does the application ot'are-enforce ofotheror non felted or non-feltible material.

A felt boot consisting of homogeneous felted fabric having the portion of its body from the ankle upward of graduated thickness integral with the body of the boot itself, substantially as described.

FRANK M. FARGO.

\Vitnesses:

JOHN E. EARLE, FRED. O. EARLE. 

